.NET, Xamarin, and mobile software development

A BLOG BY DAN HERMES

We have a new blog which focuses on Xamarin mobile app development called Mobile C# Café!
Dan Hermes, our founder and Xamarin MVP, covers all things Xamarin from his book, Xamarin Mobile Application Development.
Check it out here

We’re proud to announce that PCR Essentials, a mobile app we developed for Android using Xamarin, was awarded a Davey Gold Award and a W3 Award by the International Academy of the Visual Arts (IAVA). Commissioned by Thermo Fisher Scientific and Grand Interactive, this app pushes the boundaries of the Internet of Things (IoT) by bringing real-time data directly from DNA-processing laboratory equipment into the hands of scientists on their mobile devices. The Davey awards are run by the Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts(AIVA). With nearly 4,000 entries from …

I’m excited to announce that my forthcoming book, Xamarin Application Development, is available for pre-order on Amazon!
Build world-class native mobile apps for Android, iOS, and Windows Phone in C# using Xamarin. Learn best-practice techniques, architectures, and cross-platform coding strategies for the creation of visually stunning and highly interactive native mobile apps using .NET.
The Xamarin tool suite, Xamarin.Forms, Xamarin.Android and Xamarin.iOS, is a bridge from .NET into the world of native mobile development. They give C# developers a direct line into native Android, iOS, and Windows Phone development, allowing them to …

Our latest mobile creation just hit the app store! Commissioned by a Thermo Fisher Scientific brand, Life Technologies, this app pushes the boundaries of the Internet of Things (IoT) by bringing real-time data directly from DNA-processing laboratory equipment into the hands of scientists on their mobile devices. The app provides a suite of functionality ranging from training videos, a full e-commerce experience with lab product details, specs, images, and downloadable PDFs, and a specialized calculator for creating properly balanced solutions for use in the featured lab equipment. The pièce de …

One of the biggest problems with C# mobile development, platform-specific UI, is solved with Xamarin 3.
The greatest foe we face in our quest for cross-platform implementation is platform-specific code. Code that is platform-specific must be implemented differently depending on the platform, whether iOS , Android, or Windows Phone. Cross-platform patterns are the same regardless of operating system. Cross-platform code is sometimes referred to as shared code, or core code, as it is shared between projects for different mobile operating systems. Certain types of code lend themselves well to cross-platform sharing …

The International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) Greater Boston Chapter presents Dan Hermes spoke about How App Usability, Functionality, and Analysis are Changing with Mobile on April 10, 2014 in Wellesley, MA. Now we’re building apps for Android, iOS, Windows phone, and mobile web but is requirements gathering really any different? This talk will cover mobile mock-ups, usability, and important differences between PC web browser and mobile application analysis. Here is what the talk was about and the slides:

The first publication in my QuickNotes series is Agile Development in .NET. Most Agile methodologies used in .NET shops nationwide are variations of Scrum and Extreme Programming(XP). This booklet covers these tools and techniques: Test-driven Development (TDD), Behavior-driven Development (BDD), Continuous Integration (CI), and Refactoring to Patterns. The QuickNotes series covers relevant topics in software development to provide the reader with a swift overview of important trends, terms, and concepts. This book is available at Amazon.com.

We bring our phones to work now and use them for everything. Facebook, Candy Crush, and Twitter are a great use of a smartphone but these devices are also helping us become more productive: email, file and document handling and editing, as well as contacts, calendars and integration with sales, financial, and other third-party business apps. This creates two things: opportunity and challenge. We want to seize upon the opportunity of best utilizing these devices to do our jobs while addressing the challenge of the resulting exposure of company data …

We take this for granted now but there is an important historical fact in the development of websites and web applications: They were originally designed for use on desktop PC monitors and laptops. The design of the website accounted for the size of the screen and the user interface (a mouse). So why do our apps and website need a different design today? Because people are fleeing in droves from desktop PC browsers and using their mobile phone for internet use instead. The older design accounted for the user making …

Lexicon Systems was named a Xamarin Premier Consulting Partner for mobile application development. Using Xamarin product suite, Lexicon Systems provides a cross-platform solution for mobile development using Microsoft technologies. Built upon the open source Mono and MonoTouch for iPhone projects these technologies allow .NET developers to create mobile apps portable to Android, iOS, and Windows phones. Microsoft partnered with Xamarin in the Fall of 2013, a crucial backing for this direction. We offer guidance, training, and development using Xamarin, and assist businesses nationwide with their shift to mobile.

What do you need to know to build native mobile apps using C#? Phone and tablet operating systems and programming models differ from web and desktop development. There are many options available for mobile events, threading, and services, but what are the best ones when coding in C#? Featuring the Xamarin product suite, this talk covers the fundamentals of native mobile development in iOS and Android, including:

Coding, testing, and releasing at breakneck speed.
What could go wrong?
Technical Debt
Constant changes to a system lead to disorganized code, which is fragile and costly to maintain. Each feature we add without spending an equal amount of time reorganizing the code accrues some measure of technical debt. Agile’s fast pace and change-orientation raises the risk of bringing about the early demise of a system through this process. So how do we pay off that debt before it accrues?
The lifecycle of software is well-established: Enhance the code until it becomes unmaintainable, then …

A company in Beverly, Massachusetts is contemplating a move from their successful enterprise desktop application to the web. Requiring .NET expertise, they called upon Lexicon Systems to help them chart their course. Dan Hermes taught a one-day workshop on Web Application Development, covering topics such as Desktop vs. Web Apps, Smart and Rich Clients, AJAX, and web services and a two-day workshop on .NET development using ASP.NET and C#, ADO.NET, IIS Configuration, and web security.
He worked closely with lead managers and developers to help the company …

I recently spoke at SharePoint and .NET Saturday Bermuda, a one day conference co-hosted by the Bermuda SharePoint Users Group and the Bermuda .NET Users Group. The keynote by Joel Oleson focused on the trends of mobile and tablet use in the enterprise, and ways that Sharepoint development addresses this trend. Responsive Design is the order of the day. Enterprise web applications must be constructed in a flexible, adaptive manner that detects and responds to the device type. That is, the web pages should look different and display appropriately different content depending on whether they’re …

When it comes to native mobile development, .NET shops are in a pickle. Mobile and tablet use is estimated to make up 90% of new device adoption by 2015 (Gartner). Steve Jobs saw this coming and had this to say:
“When we were an agrarian nation, all cars were trucks, because that’s what you needed on the farm, but as vehicles started to be used in the urban centers, cars got more popular.

The Agile/XP notions of frequent releases and constant redesign can be worrying. There was a day, not far in the past, that code changes, any code changes, struck fear into the heart of a developer or project manager. In many cases this fear was justified. The majority of code was quite brittle and fragile. The smallest of changes could bring an application to a grinding halt. That’s why, when we’re doing things the Agile/XP way, we use Test-driven Development(TDD). As we destabilize the code with refactoring and destabilize …

Project managers and analysts converge on Boston in October for a conference on management and specifications for software. Software consultant Dan Hermes will speak on the topic of human communication in the software industry, presenting material from his publication How to Interact with People.
Mastering Human Communication Patterns by Dan Hermes
Project Summit & Business Analyst World
October 21, 2013, 3:45pm
Boston Marriott Burlington Hotel
details

New England Microsoft Developers will feature Dan Hermes as a speaker on Thursday, May 2nd, 2013, 6:30pm in Waltham, MA. He will cover material from his forthcoming books, Softwareball: How to Play as a Team in the Software Industry and How to Interact with People: Human Communication in the Software Industry.

Dan Hermes served on a panel of advisors for Art Technology New England’s (ATNE) Growth Resource Meeting for small businesses on the morning of April 17th. Three firms in early stages of growth presented their business plans for review. This event is sponsored by the Massachusetts Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development CreativeNext series run by Helena Fruscio, the Creative Economy Industry Director.